BEREA, Ohio -- Rookie wide receiver Jordan Payton was stuck spending part of the Cleveland Browns offseason program staying connected to his new team via a tablet.

"I was lucky enough, they gave me a (Microsoft) Surface with the playbook and every day you could watch what they're doing, stay up-to-date," Payton said on Monday before the Browns practiced for the fourth time this training camp. "Obviously it's not the real thing but it's better than nothing, for sure. I kept in contact with (Senior Offensive Assistant) Coach (Al) Saunders and we talked and I looked at the Surface and the plays. It was good."

Payton, a fifth-round pick out of UCLA, was subject to a league rule that doesn't allow a rookie to report to a team's offseason program until his school year is over. That meant that, outside of attending rookie minicamp, Payton returned to UCLA while the rest of his team reported to organized team activities. Danny Shelton went through the same situation last season.

"We understood that when we drafted him," head coach Hue Jackson said in June. "We do everything we can within the CBA rules to be in contact with him. At the same time, we have to give him the opportunity when he's back because it's not his fault that the rule is in place. Everybody throughout the National Football League deals with it, and we're not going to not draft a guy because of it."

For Payton's part, he started off on the right foot, staying up late with his fellow rookie receivers and rookie quarterback Cody Kessler during the team's rookie minicamp.

"There were some long days because we were doing installs," Kessler said. "(WRs) Rashard (Higgins), Corey (Coleman), Ricardo (Louis) and Jordan, they would come over to my room at night and we would be up until 11:00, 11:30. Even after bed checks, they would let us go a little longer just because we were learning the playbook."

Now Payton is back and he's competing with a crowded group at his position. It's not just the three other wide receivers the team picked, but there are 11 wide receivers currently on the team's roster, and that's not counting Josh Gordon, who is on the Active/Non-Football Injury list.

Payton understands that the numbers game is difficult, but he also knows he's in Cleveland because someone wanted him here.

"You're here for a reason," he said. "They drafted you for a reason. Catch the ball, run the good routes and make plays for the team is what I'm going to do."

"I know he's spent a lot of time with our coaches, a lot of time with the veteran players and they're all trying to get him up to speed," Jackson said after practice on Monday, "and he's working at it, so we'll see where he is when the time comes."

One of the things working in Payton's favor is the Browns drafted their four wide receivers with specific skillsets in mind. For Payton, it was his ability to catch the football. Vice President of Player Personnel Andrew Berry said of Payton and fellow rookie Rashard Higgins, drafted 18 spots behind Payton, "they catch everything in their catching radius to be quite honest."

"One of the biggest things that I really work on is always catching, always running good routes, knowing where you're supposed to be, when you're supposed to be there," Payton said, "so just being that complete receiver and just continuing to do that every day."

Payton showed a little bit of his ability during 11-on-11 on Monday, making a catch on a short throw -- the kind of horizontal throw that helped make Jackson's offense in Cincinnati hum -- and creating yardage after the catch by breaking multiple tackles. UCLA's all-time leader in receptions knows that the best thing he can do to separate himself is to do what he knows how.

"You don't want to do anything that's not what you do," he said.

College is behind him now, too. Even though he had small tastes of NFL life during rookie and veteran minicamps, this is the real thing.

"I think everything is really a surprise at this point to be honest with you," Payton said. "It's been, so far, unbelievable. Obviously, you play against some of the best guys in the world and it's fast, intense, so everything out there is just brand new. I'm just taking it all in."

Payton's playing catch-up, but catching has never been much of a problem to begin with.